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Getting its start five years ago, Keinemusik has used a straightforward, do it yourself approach to running a label that’s begun netting them big results. This year they’ve had two major releases – out of five total – with &ME’s “After Dark” and David Mayer’s “Sunhole,” helping introduce both the artists and label to a much wider audience.
That’s not to say it’s been easy, or simple. Made up of five musicians – &ME, David Mayer, Rampa, Reznik, Adam Port and their friend and graphic designer, Monja Gentschow – they’ve been dealing with every aspect of the business – even hand stamping each record before it goes out – since day one.
To celebrate their fifth year as a label, they’ve released the ‘Workparty Five’ EP, which is also the label’s 25th release. Pressed onto two records and fitted (for the first time in label history) with a cardboard sleeve, the inside is a collage of photos looking back at memories they’ve shared over the years. Fitting, as at its core, Keinemusik feels less like a business and more like five good friends simply doing what they love together. And it’s this friendship-based approach that likely makes things work so well.
So I made my way up to the label’s studio in Stattbad to get a feel of exactly how it all came together.
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“It just sort of happened,” Reznik reminisces. “We just were partying together and whatnot. I was playing with Rampa a lot back in the days, and somehow we (all) met each other and started to DJ together and throw parties together at Picnic and Villa, then all of the sudden we decided to make music and release music, and it was the easiest thing to do it on our own.”
“For the uninitiated, what is Keinemusik?” I ask.
“We are a bunch of friends who are running a label and throwing parties around the world,” `Reznik explains.
“Simple enough,” “Does it mean something in German?”
“It means ‘no music,” Rampa says from next to me on the couch.
“Why ‘no music’?”
“My mom said it as she heard the music,” Rampa tells me. “She said, ‘Ah, this is no music,’ so mom is always right.”
“Do people who actually speak German ask you about that. Are they thrown by it?”
“Yeah,” Rampa chuckles.
“I read on the label bio that you’re focused on being a do it yourself operation. Why is that so important to you guys?”
“The thing is that in the beginning, we had to do it,” &ME says.
“Does that mean you’re doing everything from top to bottom?”
“Yeah. A friend of ours, Monja (Gentschow) was drawing the artwork, and then we found some record shops who were able to get our records, we searched for a pressing plant – we had a little contact with a pressing plant in Lepzig – and they pressed like 300 or 500 records and were delivered to me at home. So we stamped every record because it was just white paper, so we stamped the Keinemusik stamp on it, put it in some bags and brought them to every record shop.”
“So artwork, distribution, all of it…do you need to continue to do that now?” I ask.
“It’s a good thing because you get more money!” &ME laughs, probably half joking.
“No, the good thing is we have sort of a mini-distribution now because Decks.de and Deejay.de are getting lots of records, and Decks are giving them to Juno in the UK.” &ME continues. “But that’s the only thing, distribution wise, outside of the Keinemusik thing.”
“But it also seems that continuing to do everything yourselves is something that’s very important to you,” I offer.
“Some things are in routine, so why change it?” David Mayer says. “Of course, there’s some professionals who we can reach out to now who will maybe do something for us around the world where we’re not able to be ourselves – for example, the UK or US. But if you develop a way to do it yourself and it runs well, maybe it’s good to stick with that.”
“Do you see things outgrowing what you currently have?” I ask.
“Well, we’re feeling some development this year,” Adam Port answers. “Of course &ME’s ‘After Dark’ was really strong. This helped a lot get new followers to the label, and of course for &ME also. And of course David’s record at the beginning of the year, ‘Sunhole,’ was really popular, so already a good start, we got like two big releases.
As well, ‘Workparty’ was the first time we hire a proper agency who is doing PR for us. We never did it before. We got a lot of small pieces making the cake a little bit bigger," Adam continues. "It grows slowly, not too fast, but becomes better and better from year to year. It’s not like a shooting star, out of no where in the top one position – everything goes slowly but continues.”
“Organically,” I offer.
“Organically, yes.”
“Would you rather it stay organic like that?”
“Yes,” Adam says. “I think organic holds longer than the top one of today and the nobody of next day – “
“Here today, gone tomorrow,” Reznik interjects.
“Yeah,” Adam agrees.
Reznik cuts in, saying, “I think the good thing that’s coming with it is the learning process. When you’re doing something that’s successful one minute to the other, then you are maybe missing a lot of things that are going wrong that you don’t understand. Whereas when you progress naturally, organically, and have to do all the processes yourself, then you’re learning a lot. That keeps you from becoming the falling star or whatever, that’s here today, gone tomorrow.”
“The good thing also is that a lot of the promoters we worked with the first year we are still working with five years later, “ David remarks. “So the relationships are holding really long. We’re growing with them and they’re growing with us, and it’s a healthy thing,” he continues.
“Do you have any plans to bring anyone new in to the label?” I ask.
“No,” they all answer emphatically.
“A remix sometimes,” Rampa says.
“Remixes, and we had some features like Stereo MCs, but we’re not going to get new artists on the label,” &ME says. “We don’t have the capacities to.”
“If something happens by accident and it feels right, we’ll do it, but it’s not like…” Rampa tells me.
“Is it the same with five releases a year?”
“Yep,” they all chime.
“I think five releases a year is the perfect amount for us because we can’t do more,” Rampa says. “If we have to do more, we have to play less DJ gigs or hire someone to help us. And doing less makes no sense,” he says, getting a laugh from the room.
“And also, when you have monthly releases from a label, it’s way to much information. When it’s every month a new release, it’s only possible to play the last release, like, five times, then the next one is coming,” David says. “It’s way too fast.”
“The thing is, monthly releases are already a slow release plan when most of the labels are doing it weekly,” Reznik says.
“Five a year is a good to give the release time to breath and develop,” Rampa says, and everyone nods and agreement.
“Is it also a quality control thing?” I ask.
“Yeah, of course,” Rampa answers. “If you’re only going to have five releases, then the releases have to be good.”
“And we have time to release somewhere else,” &ME reminds me.
“I like the credo of the label – ‘you don’t necessarily need to be overly serious to be taken seriously.’ Do you think too many people in the industry take themselves too seriously about what this is or what they do?” I ask.
“Nowadays, probably a lot of them take themselves too…funny,” Rampa says, the entire room erupting in laughter. “So we probably have to change this. At the moment there is a lot of comedy out there. In general, Facebook wants more comedy otherwise you don’t get likes. It’s not just music, it’s everywhere – hotels, cars, Mercedes Benz has to be funny...but yeah I don’t know what I’m talking about…” Rampa trails off.
David offers, “Until now it made sense, don’t worry.”
You can purchase ‘Workparty Five’ now from Keinemusik.com, which also offers special merchandise and edits, including a beatless version of &ME’s ‘After Dark.’